Carrying Capacity (K) & Logistic Growth — NEET Biology
✅ Asked in NEET 2024The equation of Verhulst-Pearl logistic growth is shown below. From this equation, K indicates:
The equation of Verhulst-Pearl logistic growth is shown below. From this equation, K indicates:
Answer & NCERT explanation
Correct answer: D — Carrying capacity
In Verhulst-Pearl logistic equation dN/dt = rN(K-N)/K, 'K' represents carrying capacity - the maximum population size an environment can sustainably support. When N approaches K, growth rate approaches zero. This is a key concept in population ecology from NCERT.
Read more NCERT concept on the PYQ
Logistic growth: No population of any species in nature has at its disposal unlimited resources to permit exponential growth. This leads to competition between individuals for limited resources. Eventually, the 'fittest' individual will survive and reproduce. The governments of many countries have also realised this fact and introduced various restraints with a view to limit human population growth. In nature, a given habitat has enough resources to support a maximum possible number, beyond which no further growth is possible. Let us call this limit as nature's carrying capacity (K) for that species in that habitat.
NTA tests carrying capacity (K) as the maximum population size that a habitat can sustain indefinitely with available resources. Students commonly confuse carrying capacity with population size at any random time—K is specifically the upper limit, not the current population. The key trap: thinking carrying capacity changes with the population; it's actually a fixed property of the habitat based on resource availability. Remember: K represents equilibrium or plateau in the S-shaped logistic growth curve. When population exceeds K, death rate increases and birth rate decreases, pulling the population back toward K. This concept directly relates to real-world population regulation tested frequently in competition and natural selection contexts.
What does NCERT say about Logistic growth No population?
Has this concept appeared in NEET?
Which chapter is this from?
Through deep analysis of NEET and NTA, 88 of 90 questions from the NEET 2026 paper were matched straight from the MedicNEET Biology question bank.
88/90MedicNEET's Biology question bank is built from the same NCERT lines NTA picks repeatedly. Not random MCQs — questions crafted exactly like NTA crafts them.